A component supplying apparatus referred to as a so-called tape feeder is known in the prior art as a supplier for supplying components for mounting, and that is installed on a surface mounting machine. For example, a component supplying apparatus described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2005-175200 employs a configuration that a tape housing a large number of components at fixed intervals is fed to a component removal position in front of a feeder while pulling out from a reel installed on the component supplying apparatus, and the components are extracted at this position by a surface mounting head provided on a surface mounting machine.
However, as many component supplying apparatuses as possible are required to be arranged in a single surface mounting machine in order to minimize setup work as much as possible and improve productivity of the surface mounting machine. In order to satisfy this requirement, component supplying apparatuses have tended to become thinner, and the interval at which component supplying apparatuses are installed in surface mounting machines has tend to been made as small as possible.
When a component supplying apparatus is made thinner and the interval at which part supplying apparatuses are installed is made smaller as described above, numerous types of component supplying apparatuses can be installed within a small area, thereby making it possible to improve the efficiency of setup work. However, in the case of reducing the installation interval of component supplying apparatuses in this manner, problems occur when using a wide reel. Namely, when a configuration is employed that a reel is held with a component supplying apparatus when feeding tape as in the Patent Document 1, since the reel ends up protruding in the direction of width from the component supplying apparatus in the case of a narrow component supplying apparatus, the reel ends up interfering with the adjacent component supplying apparatuses. Thus, it becomes necessary to either not arrange component supplying apparatuses in the adjacent space or hold the reel using a special structure so as not to interfere with the adjacent component supplying apparatuses.